Paul Raven

Jane Webb Springtime and Harvest 1940 Today's Children Dr Paul Masquerade Vicki Wendall Lone Journey Jean Montgomery

Over 10 billion viewers (mostly the over 50 crowd) watched 'Murder, She Wrote' during the 12 seasons the show originally went on air (1984-1996). "I made up my mind when I was 58 that I better think seriously about getting into television. This was going to be my annuity," Angela Lansbury admitted. Between 1985 and 1994, 'Murder, She Wrote' was the highest-rated drama on television. "People my age and older say thank you for depicting a woman of our generation in a way that is up, that is forward-looking, that is not age-conscious, but simply has her take her place in life with all of the sense of responsibility and fun and energy that she can muster," Angela added. In its last season (1995-96), CBS moved 'Murder, She Wrote' from Sunday after '60 Minutes' to Thursday against 'Friends' because "ad rates for the hour were about a third less than its Sunday night competitor 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'." Of the success of 'Murder, She Wrote', Peter S. Fischer elaborated, "I think there are a lot of reasons. One of them is that America loves Angela Lansbury. The Sunday time slot has a lot to do with it. We get a lot of our audience from '60 Minutes'. Theoretically, the people who watch '60 Minutes' are the kind who watch mysteries. They don't normally watch TV. It's a show about an older woman. There's no action, no sex. Our audience has learned to stay on to solve the puzzle. They were intimidated at first but they have learned that all the clues are in plain sight. Many of our audience sit around the living room and try to outguess each other." In 1984 Jessica Fletcher, a one-time substitute teacher had just published her first mystery novel as well as solved her first case. By 1988, "her world has opened up tremendously." Angela Lansbury told Associated Press, "The big change is that she has become very successful as a writer. She has become a celebrity. She has become more urbane and sophisticated, although she has not lost that small-town feeling. She has become a champion of middle-aged women and women struggling to maintain their position in life, even though they're alone." Angela Lansbury maintained, "It doesn't represent in any way a stretch, as we call it, to play Jessica Fletcher but to play Jessica, a role that has such enormous, universal appeal – that was an accomplishment I never expected in my entire life. I thought 'Murder, She Wrote' would last maybe a year or two, and that would have been fine. But it seems to have become an institution." Angela believed 'Murder, She Wrote' was popular because "it says that problems can be solved, mysteries can be unravelled. That life's anarchy can be straightened out. To make an episode work, you have to have an interesting yarn and present the audience with a set of clues and with suspects, showing how they might or might not be suspicious. I really don't want Jessica just walking through these scripts. I don't want her to be a question-and-answer machine. "You have to introduce elements putting her in danger. I want a little challenge for me. I know there are women who are my age, some widows, some who have never married, who relish the fact that I'm there with this character, who really love the fact that Jessica gets out there and messes in with life. I think it's wonderful to be able to represent that, even to the smallest degree, on television." The role of Jessica Fletcher was first offered to Jean Stapleton who decided to turn down the part. Speaking to the 'Los Angeles Times' in 1985, Angela Lansbury confessed she "didn't honestly expect the show to take off in the amazing way that it has ... On the one hand, I love the success and am enjoying that tremendously. On the other, I resist this takeover that it represents of my life … You're caught in a trap – that's what I'm not sure about. It's awfully hard to walk away from success, isn't it? "I liked what I visualized her to be when I read the script. There was something about her quality that I felt I could adapt myself to very easily, and very comfortably, and hopefully she could be an attractive person even though I was playing a middle-aged widow. I felt she was courageous and full of excitement and energy about life and people. This attracted me to her because that's my feeling about life and people. I don't have any feeling of being any age, and my enthusiasm for living and the prospect for the future never diminishes." Peter S. Fischer came up with the idea of Jessica Fletcher being younger than Miss Marple. Angela Lansbury continued, "He played up the fact that physically, Jessica was a very active woman – she rode bicycle, she jogged, she looked after herself. She did not drive a car. I don't quite know why. As it turned out, it was a very good thing she didn't because it precludes, in a sense, the need for car chases. "We have enough of them – there are enough shows that do very, very exciting car chases. Otherwise, we'd all end up in the underground garages of Los Angeles along with everybody else. We're not 'Hill Street Blues' or 'Miami (Vice)', we're not any of those things. We're simply mystery stories concerning the mystery of murder. It's unraveling, gathering all the clues and personalities involved in murder."

I guess there is no role that can't be recast but those are big shoes to fill. Any suggestions of who was around at that time that could play Lorie?

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Doug was only 7 years older than Jeanne and she presented older onscreen in the 70's and 80's so I can't see it.

2022 - Anytime Billy Abbott takes off his shirt. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Beth Ehlers - the 'Barbara Stanwyck of soaps'...if only she'd realized... Kinda sums up AW's lack of direction in the 80's.

In the 1986-87 TV season, CBS came up with the idea of a crossover between 'Magnum, p.i.' and 'Murder, She Wrote'. Michael Eisenberg of CBS told 'Newsday', "'Magnum' has more viewers who are male, teens and children, while 55% of 'Murder, She Wrote's' audience is women. This could bring more women to 'Magnum'. If this works, you'll see more such crossovers." Robert Swanson of 'Murder, She Wrote' and Jay Huguely of 'Magnum, p.i.' "worked very closely together. Obviously, the tough part for Jay Huguely was to put together the first part, the 'Magnum' episode, so it looked like a 'Magnum' and, at the same time, to bring in Angela as Jessica so that she looked good. I had the easier job. I had to make sure with the 'Murder' episode that we had four or five characters, as always one of whom would turn out to be the murderer, while doing justice to Tom Selleck as Magnum." Jay Huguely mentioned, "All along, adjustments were being made to suit the two lead characters. 'Magnum' is pretty much straight action-adventure regularly, with a big climax. In this case, because of Jessica Fletcher, our show had to be somewhat more complex and cerebral even with all the action." 'Newsday' reported, "When their scripts were finished, Swanson and Huguely found they still had more to do. Since the shows won't be sold together when they're sold into syndication as reruns, each hour episode had to be complete in and of itself." B. Donald Grant of CBS told 'Knight-Ridder Newspapers', "The key to these things is to create a certain amount of linkage between these shows in the minds of the viewers."

Odd Angela would say that as the show was a hit right out of the gate. Sometimes,on air talent are several steps removed from ratings and such so she may be misremembering or not properly informed. Apart from MSW CBS only launched Charles in Charge (which went on to be a syndication hit) Dreams (with John Stamos) and the ill fated Cover Up (Jon Erik Hexum shot himself on set).

Well CBS did place it Sunday @8 so they must have had some faith in it. Probably feeling that it would flow nicely from 60 Minutes. The competition was kid oriented action/adventure Hardcastle & McCormick (ABC) and Knight Rider (NBC) In Wk 1, MSW ranked 9th, Knight Rider was 10th and Hardcastle was 32nd. The following week MSW was 10th but Knight rider fell to 32nd.

So the hospital, police station, and various other workplaces must be being renovated also...

Rockabye was the first of the CBS Sunday Movies that followed MSW. Crazy Like A Fox and Trapper John were not holding the 60Min/MSW leadin and being beaten by movies on NBC and ABC so CBS decided to get into the act. That week MSW was 3rd 28.5/40 and Rockabye 4th 25.3/38. Love how those promos tried to jazz up the show by showing fights, bodies falling from windows etc with cuts to Jessica showing various expressions. The only action bit they called find for her was rushing to answer the phone! I was probably her hairdresser cancelling an appointment..

Thanks for posting those interview snippets. I can understand that the show had become moribund with a lot of 'old' characters but the problem was the new characters were nor very interesting. Pat Falken Smith showed when she returned how to spark the show with new characters. Rabin claimed Guthrie and Eure had a future on the show but that never eventuated. Wesley claimed NBC canned him because he was gay.Did the same happen to Guthrie? Never read that Laemmle was doing long term story. Perhaps she took a leave due to her daughters death and there was a mutual agreement not to return?

Y&R has so many long running characters that need to be rested. Billy, with multiple recasts and awful stories should have been dropped at some point.

Donald Linahan Search for Tomorrow

Wk 1 89/90 1 26.1/44 N Cosby Show 2 24.7/38 A Roseanne 3 24.1 /39 N Cheers 4 23.5/42 N Golden Girls 5 23.0/38 N Sister Kate preview 6 20.7/32 A Doogie Howser, M.D.. special 6 20.733 C Murder, She Wrote 8 20.3/33 N Sat. Night Live. 15th Anni. 9 19.6í31 N Matlock 10 19.5/32 A Who's the Boss? 11 19.3/36 N Bob Hope's Lucy 12 19.2/32 N Unsolved Mysteries 13 18.6/33 C 60 Minutes 14 18.4/29 A Chicken Soup 15 18.1/31 A Growing Pains 16 17.8/30 N Hardball special 17 17.026 C Murphy Brown 18 16.4/30 N Amen 19 16.3/29 A NFL Monday Night Football 20 16.226 C Major Dad 21 15.924 C Famous Teddy Z 21 15 9/24 C Island Son special 21 15.9/25 N NBC Monday Movie 24 15.6/25 N Nutt House 25 15.3/27 N NBC Friday Movie 26 15.2/24 A ABC Sunday Movie 27 15124 C Designing Women 27 15.1/28 A Full House 29 14.6/25 A Free Spirit special 29 14.6'23 C People Next Door 29 14.6/25 A Perfect Strangers 32 14.4/26 A China Reach 32 14.4/23 A Doogie Howser, M.D. (Wed.) 34 14.3/23 N ALF 35 14.0/22 N Hogan Family 35 14.0/22 C Jake and the Fatman 35 14.0/27 N 227 38 13.9/25 A Family Matters 39 13.8/23 C 48 Hours 40 13.7/22 A Young Riders, special 41 13.6/23 C Newhart 42 13.5/24 C Island Son 43 13.3/24 N Midnight Caller 43 13.3/24 A Thirtysomething 45 12.8/23 C Dallas 46 12.7/21 C Wolf special 47 12.6/23 N Baywatch 47 12.6/23 A 20/20 49 12.1/21 A PrimeTime Live 50 11.818 N My Two Dads 50 11.8/12 C Wiseguy 50 11.8/19 A Young Riders 53 11.5/21 C Paradise 54 11.0/18 C Top of the Hill 55 10.8/17 C Rescue: 911 56 10.4/17 A Free Spirit 56 10.4/19 C Snoops 58 10.2/15 F Married...With Children 58 10.218 C Tour of Duty 60 10.0/18 A Life Goes On 61 9.8/16 A MacGyver 62 9.7/16 C Peaceable Kingdom 62 9 7/17 N Quantum Leap 62 9.7/15 F Totally Hidden Video 62 9.7/17 C Wiseguy. Wed 66 9.6/16 F America's Most Wanted 67 8.9/15 N Sister Kate 68 8.7/14 A Homeroom 69 8.6/14 A .Mission: Impossible 70 8.1/13 C Wolf 71 7.6/15 C Sat. Night with Connie Chung 72 7.5/12 F Alien Nation 73 6.8/13 A ABC College Football 73 6.8/11 F 21 Jump Street 75 6.6/12 N ALF Takes Network 76 6.5/12 F Booker 77 6.3/12 F Cops 78 5.6/8 F Open House 79 4.4/8 F Reporters 80 3.6/6 F Tracey Ullman Show 81 3.0/5 F Beyond Tomorrow

Never heard of this - tell us more...

Madlyn Rhue was dealing with MS that confined her to a wheelchair.From Wikipedia She also performed a recurring role in Murder, She Wrote, said to be her last television role.[8][10] Angela Lansbury created a role for her when she heard that Rhue was at risk of losing her insurance because she could no longer work enough hours.[11] The role would have been written differently to suit Jean. I'm sure her 'Jessica' would be more quirky and comedic and no Cabot Cove. More likely a suburban widow. What does Jean say about the role in her interview?

That makes sense. I just read up on the show and yes, cheaper guest stars were used to combat costs, so it addressed both issues. When Angela's Corymore took over production of the show, they were set for life. Several family members worked on the show and her son and stepson secured deals with CBS.

As idiotic as that name is, it is the kind of thing modern moms would do. Gets you a lot of likes on your socials.

Back to MSW. Was it a fact that in the final seasons, the guest cast was a lot less'starry' due to budget cuts ?

Funny I thought the same thing. Betty as a nurse or maybe a Waltons/Little House type wife would have been more believable and offscreen perhaps not as bitchy as Sue Ann but nonetheless with an edge to contrast her fictional character.

And she was Barbara Bel Geddes respected stage actress. The likes of Donna Mills or Susan Sullivan who came from daytime soaps and other primetime gigs were not deemed worthy.

Did Betty play a Sue Ann type character or was she softer? I guess the Undercover Woman premise was meant to be part of the humor as Betty is along way from Angie Dickinson. The videotape is a surprise as viewers were used to MTM shows being filmed. Anyway, Betty had a couple of weeks of good numbers but once the season was truly underway, CBS was clobbered by the NBC Monday movie which was feeding off the Little House lead-in. When CBS programmed an Elvis special at 8pm (#2 for the week) Betty jumped back into the Top 10 but that was it. It then swapped timeslots with lead out Maude before being dropped. CBS which was suffering on Tues as Three's Company was hurting MASH moved its Tues 9-11 shows to Monday and put in a movie on Tues. That immediately worked and MASH was saved and prospered Mon at 9 till it finished. Maybe if Betty was put Sat @9 it might have stood more of a chance in the familiar MTM slot.

Could you elaborate? That show seemed to have hit written all over it. CBS scheduled it for Mon @9 and early ratings were good. WTH happened???